Standing up for a beachfront oasis

Residents of the Siesta Key condo Ebb Tide are fighting to retain control over what gets built in their backyard.

By MICHAEL BRAGA

It is best not to mention the word "developer" around Melinda Cook, Patricia Lynch and Rudy and Carol Atilano.

Since 2002, these owners of condo units at the Ebb Tide on Siesta Key have seen a parade of developers invade their oasis by the beach and leave them with nothing but aggravation and unpaid association dues.

First, there was Melissa DeMarco, who bought six units at Ebb Tide, only to lose them after running into financial trouble. Then there was Daniel Prewett, who met his obligations until he was arrested in October 2006 for money laundering in connection with a cocaine deal.

Finally, there was Warren Hickernell, who bought the 10-unit Capri Inn and the 36-unit Siesta Plaza around the corner in 2005, only to default on $9 million in loans from the Bank of Commerce and Orion Bank in 2007.

In each case, these failed developers left Ebb Tide owners with tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid association dues.

"We've all been strained by the financial drain on us," Rudy Atilano said. "We've also had to hire lawyers to help us over the hump, and that adds up real fast."

Now Ebb Tide owners say they are facing a new wave of developers who are trying to take away their control over what is built in their backyard.

They claim the CRP/Triton group, which is building a $100 million, 44-unit Hyatt Hotel on the beach, has been trying to get around association rules. They say the same goes for Larry Starr, who bought Hickernell's 36-unit Siesta Plaza project last month and is planning to replace it with 29 high-end vacation rental units.

As a result, Cook and the Atilanos have determined to fight these developers at every turn unless they get what they want.

"These developers are playing a game that puts financial stress on us, that screws us out of association dues," Cook said. "In the end, what we want is for them to give us an honest offer for our units."

Cook said $700,000 is what she wants for her Ebb Tide abode, and that number is based on a 2007 appraisal.

"I'm not out to stop Triton from developing, but I don't want them to steal our property rights in the process," she said. "If they do it the wrong way, we will take the same legal steps that girl at the Quay had to take," Cook said, referring to Sonia Hamouda, who sued developer Patrick Kelly and refused to move out of her El Verona condo until Kelly agreed to pay her $1.5 million.

"I'd call that extortion," said Roxanne Joffe, Triton's spokeswoman, adding that Triton has no desire to put financial stress on Ebb Tide owners.

Starr, who said he has never spoken to Cook or Atilano, added that he only wants to be a good neighbor. That is why he paid $35,000 in back dues owed by Hickernell and applied to become a full, dues-paying member of the Sarasota by the Sea Homeowners Association, which includes 15 of the area's property owners, including those at Ebb Tide.

"When Triton is done and we're done, it would seem to me all the other properties would rise with that tide," Starr said.

Cook, Lynch and the Atilanos bought their units at Ebb Tide in the 1990s for a combined price of $208,500. Today, those same three units are worth $760,300, or about $253,000 apiece, according to Sarasota County Property Appraiser records.

DeMarco was the first developer to disrupt the laid-back rhythms at Ebb Tide when she bought units for $807,100 in 2002 and 2003. DeMarco did not make required payments to the condo association, forcing remaining Ebb Tide owners to come up with about $30,000, Cook said.

Then, when Prewett took over those same units in late 2005, Ebb Tide owners had to deal with a new set of problems. Rudy Atilano said Prewett moved some of his employees into the units, several of whom had criminal records.

"They were not what you would call the cream of the crop," Atilano said. "We thought they were put there as a method of bringing us down."

He said the new occupants made it difficult for him to rent his unit because they left the place in a state of disarray, while Cook said one of Prewett's associates actually threatened her with physical violence.

After Prewett was arrested in October and defaulted on his loans, Ebb Tide owners said they were left with about $14,000 in unpaid association dues.

In the meantime, Hickernell was having financial problems of his own and ultimately failed to pay $35,000 in dues to the broader Sarasota by the Sea association. Ebb Tide owners were on the hook for $4,900 of that total.

Atilano explained that dues paid to Sarasota by the Sea, which ranged from $30,000 to $70,000 a year, go to maintaining two roads on either side of the community, access to Siesta Beach and a communal swimming pool.

When Starr bought the failed Siesta Plaza project from Orion Bank for $6.7 million last month -- receiving a $12.6 million loan from the same bank, he paid off Hickernell's unpaid dues and said he would continue paying association dues in the future. But Cook and Atilano are skeptical.

In spite of the fact that their 1957 deed says that each member of the Sarasota by the Sea association must sign off on any agreement involving material changes to the beach community, Cook said Triton tried to get around that requirement when it filed for a drainage easement last year.

Sharon Cunningham, the secretary and treasurer of the association, granted Triton the easement without consulting all the association members, Cook said. When Cook found out about it, she complained to the county and managed to bring construction at Triton's project to a halt.

"That put them four or five months behind," Cook said. "They had to redesign their drainage plan."

Cunningham said her actions were not meant to bypass individual owners, but only to get the permitting process started.

Brent Virkus, president of the Triton Cos., said his group wanted to tap into the association's drainage pipe and fix it for them. "But Melinda came in and blocked it, which seems ludicrous," Virkus said. "Why wouldn't you want a better system?"

Virkus said Triton has now designed a better system that will treat the drainage before expelling it.

"It didn't put us behind that much," Virkus said. "You have to plan ahead when someone is being somewhat hostile."

Though Ebb Tide owners won the drainage battle, they are afraid that Triton and Starr will try to strip away their power by turning over decisions involving the Sarasota by the Sea association to the association's seven-member board of directors.

Ed Cordelia, the president of the association, believes that is the way things should be. It is in the interest of all residents to let Triton and Starr to go ahead with their projects, Cordelia said.

"They are going to beautify the area and the price of everyone's house on the block is going to go up," he said.

Though Cook and Atilano understand that logic, they do not agree with the idea that the board should make decisions for them, and they have an attorney who backs them up.

"It's the 15 owners, and not the seven directors, who were granted decision making power by the 1957 deed," Atilano said, adding that if developers want anything, they should have to negotiate with surrounding property owners.

"They're talking about building a $1 billion Hyatt village complex here," Atilano said. "And my gut feeling is that if this property is so desirable, they should pay for the right to develop it."

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